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Sunday, July 06, 2014

What the Hell do We do with...Hell (Part 4)

Having already taken a brief look at conservative and moderate theologies of hell, the last episode began an exploration to a revisionist approach. In that episode, I asked whether we had better language for dealing with the same issues that hell addresses, and I chose to work with language of "justice".

Justice has boundaries. Crossing those boundaries leads us into injustice. Now it is time to ask how the language of justice helps us to deal with such transgressions.

I argue that there are different understandings of justice, which is largely based on where we are emotionally or developmentally. When I talk about divine justice, what I don't mean is "retributive justice." For those who want to learn more about the issues around retributive justice, I recommend reading works by Rene Girard. He is an anthropologist who explores the place of violence in cultures and the dynamic of "scapegoating". Also, consider the work of Walter Wink, with his emphasis on non-violence.

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